Unidentified objects shot down: Senior US general does not rule out 'aliens'

The US Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to US intelligence experts. Asked whether he had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for three airborne objects shot down by US warplanes in as many days, General Glen VanHerck said: "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. "At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America in an attempt to identify it," said VanHerck, head of U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command. The incidents come as the Pentagon has undertaken a new push in recent years to investigate military sightings of UFOs - rebranded in official government parlance as "unidentified aerial phenomena," or UAPs.